Land Classification in Agriculture to Measure Potential of Land

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The classification of land according to its quality for a particular pur­pose is known as land classification. The concept of land classifica­tion is often used for agriculture as a whole, but assessment are sometimes made for single enterprise.

The results are usually repre­sented cartographically and may form a basis for planning decisions on applications for the conversion of agricultural land use to other uses.

In general, land use classification has two components, as under:

1. The assessment of physical quality and agricultural potential of land. This is also known as ‘land capability’. The physical properties of land are almost unchangeable. In fact, the char­acter and quality of land and its soil depend on the parent ma­terial, temperature, rainfall, water retaining capacity, soil tex­ture, soil structure and humus contents. These properties of land do not change over shorter period of time.

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2. The assessment of land quality under the prevailing set of so­cioeconomic circumstances including farm structure, avail­ability of irrigation, relative cost of labour, capital inputs, level of technology and price stability. The economic and so­cial controls on production are more variable. A number of land use classification systems are in vogue in dif­ferent countries of the world. The first systematic land classification was done by L.D. Stamp.

In his land classification of Britain, Stamp adopted a seven-fold system, i.e.

(i) Arable,

(ii) Heath and rough,

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(iii) Pastures,

(iv) Orchards and nurseries,

(v) Meadowland,

(vi) Forest and woodland, and

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(vii) Urban areas.

The details and justification of this classification in Stamp’s monumental work The Land of Britain: Its Use and Misuse. This classification helped in overcoming many of the problems pertaining to the demand of land after the Second World War.

Subsequently, Coleman, a student of Stamp, adopted a classification of 13 major classes with various sub­divisions, making 70 land use types in all. The International Geo­graphical Union (IGU) resolved to produce a unified classification system for the whole world but in the absence of adequate and reli­able data, particularly about the developing countries, it could not be­come possible.

In the United States of America, Sauer (1924) pioneered the land use survey. Subsequently, Jones, Finch (1925) stressed on the impor­tance of land use classification for planning and development. In 1925, Whittlesey took into consideration several socioeconomic indi­cators for the delineation of agricultural typologies of the world.

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Looking at the arduous and cumbersome nature of the task of land use survey and land use classification, the American geogra­phers gave emphasis on sampling techniques. The sampling tech­niques were considered superior to field survey as they economize on time, effort and money.

In India, M. Shafi is the pioneer of land use studies. He published the Land Use Survey in Easter Uttar Pradesh in 1962. Under his su­pervision over two dozen students completed their doctoral theses in the field of agricultural land use studies. The availability of satellite imageries has revolutionized the whole technique of land use classification. The main weakness of the traditional land use survey is that it gives only a static description of existing land use and is very time, effort and money consuming.

Land Suitability Survey:

Land classification, on the basis of land capability, has been consid­ered as a more important document for the planning and develop­ment of agriculture. Land capability classification is a scientific ap­praisal of the physical characteristics of land, its inherent soil quali­ties, and the farm management practices. The land capability maps are more useful for the delineation of problematic and potential ar­able lands.

In several developed countries land has been classified on the ba­sis of land capability, suitability, agricultural productivity and land irrigability. Stamp, in 1960, introduced the concept of potential pro­duction unit (PPU) as a standard unit for land classification. A PPU may be defined as the potential production of one acre of good aver­age farm land under good farm management practices.

A rough scale of PPU was developed as under:

One acre of class I = 2.00 PPU

One acre of class II = 1.00 PPU

One acre of class III = 0.50 PPU

By applying the PPU technique for land classification one may assess the loss of cultivated land if that is devoted to some other uses (industries, housing, etc.). For example, if 100 acres of class II (medium quality) of land are used for the construction of a factory, it will be a loss of 100 PPU, while if the class I(good quality) land is used for establishment of that factory the loss will be equivalent to 200 PPU, and by constructing the factory in the class III category(poor quality), the loss will be to the extent of only 50 PPU.

It will, therefore, be more judicious and rational to construct the factory on the poor quality of land where the loss of potential production units is the minimum. Thus, the potential production units is a good technique for the delineation of land capability regions.